Be transparent over suppliers, Archbishop challenges Wal-Mart

THE Archbishop of York has challenged Asda Wal-Mart to be more transparent about its suppliers and said "somebody somewhere" is paying the price for the retail giant's low prices.

John Sentamu spoke out after Wal-Mart's UK ethical standards manager outlined what the firm had done to stamp out child labour in its supply chain but said it did not want to publish details of its actions on its website.

Chris McCann, who was one of several business leaders meeting the Archbishop at an event in Leeds, said that he did not wish to make "political capital" out of Wal-Mart's work overseas.

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Dr Sentamu, second-in-command in the worldwide Anglican communion, asked: "If you have nothing to fear why not release it?

"For Wal-Mart to compete in this competitive world (and) with Wal-Mart to have low prices you need to be obtaining these products more and more at low cost prices than others. Therefore logic seems to suggest to me that somebody somewhere is paying the price."

Mr McCann made a wide-ranging defence of Wal-Mart's ethical policy at the event at the LS1 Club, put on by Rev Rob Hinton, Minster to the business community in Ripon and Leeds, and said: "Untrammelled capitalism is inimical to human well-being."

The American retailer, which owns Leeds-based Asda, makes profits of between $10bn to $12bn per year. Mr McCann said operating on that scale brings a responsibility and denied they were "afraid" of disclosure.

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"We carry out 16,000 inspections on production sites around the world. We interview workers, we do site inspections and we do document reviews. On the back of that we decide whether to continue with those suppliers or not.

"If there is child labour and our auditors uncover it then we part company with that supplier forever and if we get the opportunity we will shop them to the local authorities. I am quite pleased with the work we do."

Mr McCann said child labour was only found in 0.5 per cent of its supply chain audits and said Wal-Mart's experience had been shared by other major members of the Ethical Trading Initiative, such as Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury's.

Mr McCann cited the work done by Wal-Mart on top of its global cycle of inspections, saying the company had challenged the government of Uzbekistan over its approach to child labour and of Bangladesh over the wages paid there but dismissed suggestions that supermarket giants were to blame for exploitation.

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"It is erroneous to say that low price retailers such as my business are responsible for the situation we are in today.

"I do not accept that the standards in the factories that we work in are any less or any worse than the standards of other retailers on the basis of consumer price. (However) I would accept there are issues in production sites globally.

"I know that because I have seen them."

Mr McCann revealed that in the Ivory Coast he had seen the body of a worker, slumped outside a factory, who had been beaten to death after a disagreement with a supervisor.

Dr Sentamu repeated his call for Wal-Mart to put more information about its ethical standards on its website and called for businesses to follow the historic example of the confectioners Fry, Rowntree and Cadbury.

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The "trinity of chocolate" built houses for their staff and helped to raise the standard of living.

"In the past 30 years wealth creation has helped a lot of people out of poverty. I hope it is still capable of doing it."

Dr Sentamu also said the introduction of the minimum wage in Britain in 1999 showed how standards could be improved without harming competitiveness.

"When the minimum wage came in businesses screeched and said it will drive companies out of business.

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"It never did. It did not destroy this country so it should not destroy others.

"You (Wal-Mart) are capable of setting a standard that others can

match."

God and mammon

John Sentamu has upbraided several business practices since he became the 97th Archbishop of York in 2005.

Dr Sentamu, who grew up in rural Uganda, has attacked the City and in 2008 branded the traders who cashed in on falling share prices in troubled bank HBOS as 'bank robbers' and 'asset strippers'.

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He has also previously spoken of an 'Alice in Wonderland' market, in which "the share value of a bank is no longer dependant on the strength of its performance, but rather on the willingness of the Government to bail it out" and also highlighted the dangers of exploitative lending.

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has called for fresh scrutiny and regulation of the financial world.

Rob Hinton, Minister to the business community in the diocese of Ripon and Leeds, has highlighted the effects of the financial crisis on bank workers.

Last month he told the Yorkshire Post that people at the top feel the pain of redundancy just as much as a lowly-paid bank cashier and called on society to remember the impact it had on their spouses and children, all of whom have to suddenly cope with a dramatic change in their lifestyle.

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